Deepra Sarkar
The brutal and gory murder of Roylynn Rides Horse was highlighted in an episode of ‘Dead Silent,’ a true-crime series from Investigation Discovery. The series detailing crimes committed at locations that are well removed from the crowded regions unfurls these cases through real-time interviews and accounts from people directly impacted by the crime. In the episode titled ‘Three Miles on Castle Rock Road,’ the audience is given a closer look at the circumstances, convicts, and the victim of a gruesome murder in 2016.
Roylynn Rides Horse was strangled, beaten mercilessly, stripped, and then set on flames by Angelica Jo Whiteman, Dimarzio Sanchez, and Frank Sanchez. Rides Horse was immediately taken into intensive care but died a few weeks from the day she was burned. The three alleged suspects were eventually convicted of the murder and sentenced accordingly. Let’s find out more about them, shall we?
Who Are Angelica Whiteman, Dimarzio Sanchez, and Frank Sanchez?
On May 11, 2016, Angelica Jo Whiteman was arrested in Billings on a warrant supposedly issued by the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court. Following her arrest, Dimarzio Sanchez was also charged with a complaint of assault with intent to commit murder. Despite critically treating Rides Horse for months at a burn center, she succumbed to the third-degree burns, which covered 45 percent of her body. On April 17, 2016, Roylynn Rides Horse was found by a rancher who had stopped his truck on Castle Rock Road on the Crow Indian Reservation. She was taken into emergency treatment care and then shifted to the University of Utah Hospital Burn Center almost immediately after.
When investigators looked into the case to sketch out the precise timeline, they resorted to patrons and surveillance footage from a bar. These suggested that Rides Horse had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend, following which she requested Whiteman, who was at the bar too, to give her a ride. Whiteman, along with the two Sanchez brothers, Dimarzio and Frank, managed to get rid of Rides Horse’s boyfriend before they agreed to take her home. While on the road, Whiteman and Rides Horse got into a heated argument over a man, which quickly intensified into violence.
The two women started fighting physically, and Whiteman asked Dimarzio to stop the vehicle. She then dragged Rides Horse out of the car and continued to beat her aggressively before strangling her. At this point, Dimarzio offered to teach Whiteman how to strangle a human properly and choked Rides Horse with a bandana. Following this, Sanchez ordered his brother to retrieve gasoline from their car, which they used to burn Rides Horse, and then left her to die in a field.
Where Are Angelica Whiteman, Dimarzio Sanchez, and Frank Sanchez Now?
On July 22, 2016, a grand jury indicted Whiteman and the two Sanchez brothers on one count of first-degree murder. During his trial in March 2017, Frank Sanchez pled guilty to one count of being an accessory after the fact and charging of misprision of a felony, each. The plea offered by Frank comprised of elements that implicated Dimarzio and Whiteman in the commission of first-degree murder or aiding and abetting first-degree murder.
Following this, Whiteman also agreed to plead guilty. On August 8, 2017, she agreed to aiding and abetting Dimarzio in committing first-degree murder. On August 30, 2017, Whiteman admitted to all the facts that would provide sufficient evidence to convict her for aiding and abetting first-degree murder. She also lent her testimony in Dimarzio’s trial before her own sentencing, stating that Dimarzio had strangled Rides Horse and burnt her subsequently.
On December 7, 2017, Dimarzio was found guilty by the jury of first-degree murder. At the end of their respective trials, Whiteman was sentenced to 40 years in prison with five years of supervised release. Frank Sanchez was sentenced to 9 years in prison with three years’ supervised release, while Dimarzio Sanchez was sentenced to 100 years in prison. All three of them are currently serving their sentences.
Read More: Roylynn Rides Horse Murder: How Did She Die?
